{"id":905700,"date":"2026-09-26T02:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T02:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/905700\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T02:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T02:52:19","slug":"childrens-author-andy-griffiths-immortalised-with-sculpture-at-national-portrait-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/905700\/","title":{"rendered":"Children’s author Andy Griffiths immortalised with sculpture at National Portrait Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Griffiths, one of Australia’s most-loved children’s authors, has been immortalised in a new portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.<\/p>\n

The 4-metre-high 3D-printed work by artist Ronnie van Hout, titled Andy Andy, captures how Griffiths’ “inner kid” still runs riot while he’s trying to be an adult.<\/p>\n

“That kid has a lot of time to waste and to wonder and to just enjoy the ride, rather than trying to get to the end,” Griffiths said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The sculpture captures Griffiths perched in the branch of a tree, observing almost infinite versions of himself. (ABC News: Lish Fejer)<\/p>\n

The author realised he was never going to write serious literary adult fiction early on.<\/p>\n

“Whenever I picked up a pen, the child inside me would go, ‘Ah, great, my chance to come out’ and I would write funny, weird, strange stuff,” Griffiths said.A portrait with a punk streak<\/p>\n

Griffiths and van Hout had never met before, but a shared love of punk music and absurdist humour runs through both their work.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Ronnie van Hout and Andy Griffiths share a love of punk music and absurdist humour. (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)<\/p>\n

The sculpture leans into that chaos, and the creativity that comes from it.<\/p>\n

“Working on this project actually made me think about our connected, shared kind of imagery and histories, and all the things that have influenced me,” van Hout said.<\/p>\n

“It makes you think about what creates you as a person.”<\/p>\n

Brainstorm shows inputs for absurd output\"An<\/p>\n

Brainstorm by Ronnie van Hout features 130 objects, books, and music from Andy Griffiths’ writing room. (ABC News: Lish Fejer)<\/p>\n

Alongside Andy Andy is Brainstorm, which gives a peek into what objects, music and books turn the cogs of Griffiths’ mind.<\/p>\n

“I think my writing has a kind of kooky frequency that if you’re a reader, you just pick up on it. It’s how I walk through the world,” Griffiths said.<\/p>\n

He relates deeply to music that matches that “frequency”, and hopes kids and adults alike will be inspired to think differently.<\/p>\n

“You’ll see records on the wall that you never knew existed,” Griffiths said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Brainstorm gives a peek into what music turns the cogs of Andy Griffiths’ mind. (ABC News: Lish Fejer)<\/p>\n

“You must now pester your parents to get it for you because this is a whole world of alternative thinking and music and art that I’m delighted to share and offer to any children or adults who are open to it.<\/p>\n

“It can take you places you’ll never imagine.”A bittersweet week<\/p>\n

The unveiling lands just days after the death of Terry Denton, Griffiths’ illustrator and creative collaborator of nearly 30 years<\/a>, and the artist behind the Treehouse series.<\/p>\n

“We were enablers of each other,” Griffiths said.<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

Andy Griffiths says he and long-time friend and collaborator, Terry Denton, were great enablers of one another’s weirdness. (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)<\/p>\n

“I was this young punk rocker with weird stuff that no-one would publish. And he said, ‘Well, tell them I’ll illustrate anything you do’ because he saw in me a chance to explore that chaotic side of himself.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want to be glib because I miss him a lot.<\/p>\n

“But his spirit is in those books, and I’m really happy about that \u2014 that he’s going to live in kids’ minds for quite some time to come.”<\/p>\n

Andy Andy and Brainstorm are on display at the National Portrait Gallery until mid 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Griffiths, one of Australia’s most-loved children’s authors, has been immortalised in a new portrait at the National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[95970,2666,473565,83386,4624,64,63,81,13682,473566,2667,502,134,22429,473564,3811],"class_list":["post-905700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-3d-printed","tag-act","tag-andy-andy","tag-andy-griffiths","tag-artist","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian","tag-author","tag-brainstorm","tag-canberra","tag-children","tag-entertainment","tag-national-portrait-gallery","tag-ronnie-van-hout","tag-sculpture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}